Lord Rooker: Derry City Council is undertaking safety-related improvements at City of Derry Airport, including lengthening of the runway end safety areas, to allow full use to be made of the existing runway pavement. The council has no plans to lengthen the existing runway. The council expects these works to be completed by the end of 2007.
	In March 2005, the Government of the Republic of Ireland agreed in principle to joint funding for this project, subject to the council meeting a number of conditions. Subsequently, on 24 January 2007, the Irish Government confirmed the total amount of their contribution, which includes increased provision to meet property price inflation and additional engineering costs.

Lord Davies of Oldham: The current form of the religion question that is being used for the census test, which is being carried out in five local authority areas in May, is the same as that used in the 2001 census. The wording of the question was decided after a lengthy period of consultation prior to the 2001 census with a wide range of interested parties and census users, including representatives of all the major faith organisations.
	The question collects information on religious affiliation or identification, which is required by many users for monitoring equality. The question does not attempt to collect detailed information about the extent to which people practise their religion or the depth of their belief. This would require the inclusion of additional questions and/or explanations and therefore require the allocation of more space than is currently available on the census questionnaire. Responses to the consultation exercise carried out in 2005 in England and Wales on topics for the 2011 census indicated a strong requirement for information on religious affiliation or identification but not on religious practice or religion brought up in. Indications from the continuing consultation are that the majority of the user community is satisfied with the information collected in the 2001 census.
	The Office for National Statistics is currently conducting further consultation focusing specifically on the topics of ethnicity, identity, religion and language, which will help to inform the development of questions. Details of this consultation can be found at www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/cn_155.asp.
	It is apparent that demands for information from the census are greater than are likely to be able to be accommodated, and difficult trade-offs will need to be made. The current working assumption is that we will be using the same religion question in the 2011 census in England and Wales as in the 2001 census and the 2007 census test.
	Final decisions on the content of the 2011 census will not be made until the programme of consultation and question testing is complete and formal approval is given by Parliament in 2010. A White Paper setting out the Government's proposals including the wording of any questions about ethnicity and identity is scheduled to be published in 2008.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: HSE's approach to moving furniture in its offices is based on its own assessment of the risks from manual handling—one of the main causes of work-related absence among its staff. Where furniture needs to be moved regularly, it is mounted on lockable wheels so that any staff can move it easily. For other, bulky and cumbersome furniture, arrangements have been made with porters to move it safely; signs have therefore been posted in some meeting rooms advising staff of this arrangement.
	The relevant legislation, the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, is goal-setting and requires organisations to find and implement arrangements that are appropriate to their particular circumstances. There is no intention that the solution adopted by HSE should be imposed inflexibly on other government offices.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: The information requested is set out below.
	
		
			 Rates of all reported injuries to workers under RIDDOR for 2005-06 
			  Rate of RIDDOR reported injury per 100,000 workers 
			 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC92)  
			 Agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing (SIC A, B) 1 360 
			 Construction (SIC F) 640 
			 Transport, storage and communications (SIC I) 2 1,390 
			 Manufacturing (SIC D) 920 
			 Extractive and utility supply industries (SIC C, E) 1,050 
			 Other services (SIC O) 270 
			 Public administration (SIC L) 1,320 
			 Health and social work (SIC N) 450 
			 Wholesale/retail/hotels (SIC G, H) 340 
			 Education (SIC M) 150 
			 Finance/business (SIC J, K) 180 
			 All industries 500 
			 1 Excludes sea fishing. 
			 2 Only transport injuries arising from shore-based services are included. Excludes incidents reported under merchant shipping legislation. 
		
	
	For 2005-06, the rate of RIDDOR reportable injuries to HSE staff members in HSE head offices was 107 per 100,000. In HSE there is a high level of reporting of injuries, particularly of RIDDOR reportable incidents, so these figures are likely to be as close to reality as practicable.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Through the provision of intermediate care services, patients who would otherwise be required to remain in hospital for long periods of time have access to a short period of community-based intensive rehabilitation and treatment or intensive care. The NHS Plan set clear targets for the expansion of intermediate care services and since 1999-2000 the National Health Service has delivered an extra 18,253 beds and places in intermediate care.

Lord Triesman: The multinational force in Iraq co-operates closely with the Iraqi security forces in their efforts to stem the flow of weapons entering the country. On 15 February 2007, the Government of Iraq closed their border crossing points with Iran. This pause in operations was used to improve search facilities and crossing procedures at six of these crossing points, all of which have now reopened. The remaining crossing points will be closed indefinitely. In parallel, the Government of Iraq has engaged politically with the Iranian Government, to urge Iran to help to prevent the smuggling of material that might be used to attack Iraqi or multinational forces.

Baroness Amos: The international community pledged collectively US$7.6 billion in loans and grants to Lebanon at the Paris III conference on 25 January. The commitments span several years. Precise figures for the sums already spent by donors in Lebanon do not yet exist and there is no single timetable. The Government of Lebanon announced last week that they intended to form a committee of major donor countries and other organisations in March to help to monitor the spending of funds pledged at the Paris III conference.
	The soft loans will not reduce the overall level of debt, but some of the loans are intended to help to ease Lebanon's debt service obligations; for example, a US$300 million loan from United Arab Emirates was issued on 20 February and will be used to pay annual debt service. The Government of Lebanon intend to reduce the overall amount of debt by implementing their economic reform programme.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Under the general practitioner dynamisation settlement decided by Secretary of State for the years 2003-08, it is estimated that the increase in the overall scheme liability has been limited to £1.5 billion, of which approximately £1 billion is attributable to the years 2003-06, within estimated total scheme liabilities of approximately £165 billion.